


all i ask

by FBRAYLPEZ



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/F, Fluff and Angst, tahani and janet being cute besties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:07:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27143596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FBRAYLPEZ/pseuds/FBRAYLPEZ
Summary: alternate endingeleanor, tahani, jason, and chidi are all being sent to the bad place. tahani is determined to let eleanor know how she feels before they leave, with the help of janet she gains the confidence to spend her last hours with the woman she loves.based on all i ask by adele
Relationships: Tahani Al-Jamil/Eleanor Shellstrop
Comments: 1
Kudos: 46





	all i ask

All Tahani ever wanted was to be enough. For her parents, for her sister, her friends, herself. It was all she worked for, approval. And look where it got her, spending her last few hours of a peaceful afterlife, staring at the wall that separated her and her soulmate's rooms. Her obnoxious, rude, hilarious, beautiful soulmate, who she just couldn't get the fucking balls to kiss. And now she's just about out of time before the morning comes around and she'll never see her again. 

"God damnit," Tahani muttered to herself. If she was never good enough for anyone, she wanted, no, needed to be enough for Eleanor. Eleanor, who had worked so fucking hard to get them all to the good place, but ultimately had no say in the decision. 

Was she going to spend the rest of her few hours wishing she had gave in? What good would that do? She had to woman up and give in, even if it's a little late. Because what the hell does she have to lose? Tomorrow will begin her eternal torture, away from all of the people she met in her afterlife that she now considers her family. 

"Janet!" She called.

Janet appeared with a "ding!", sitting on the window bench of Tahani's bedroom with her legs tucked in criss-cross. And she looked numb. It was the most human that Tahani had ever seen her.

"What's up, Tahani?" She asked. 

Tahani threw her legs over the side of the bed, standing and trotting to sit next to Janet. She never thought she would consider an Alexa in human form as a best friend, but the afterlife is weird, and Janet always listened to her. Especially about Eleanor.

"I just," She started, taking a deep breath. "I need a friend right now." She admitted, her voice shaking. 

Janet looked up from fiddling with her hands, her face softening incredibly. "Of course. Anything you need, what's bothering you?" 

"Well, it's Eleanor." She paused, looking away to stare at a random spot on her wallpaper. "We all know tomorrow is going to tear us away from this fake paradise, and all this time I was so busy trying to help get us out of our stupid mess to just do the simplest thing and... and fucking kiss her. I mean, how simple is that? Just a kiss. It takes a second. And I couldn't find the damn time." 

Janet placed a comforting hand on Tahani's sweatpant clad thigh. "There's um, there's something I never told you." Tahani met her eyes at this, her perfect brows met in confusion. 

"Wha-"

"I just really thought we were going to make it out of here, I guess." Janet spoke softly, then shook her head. "But you need to know. You deserve to know what happened in the reboots." 

Tahani had her full attention on Janet, encouraging her to continue. 

"Well. As you know, in the current reboot, you and Eleanor are soulmates." Tahani nodded at this. "But what you don't know, is that you two were soulmates in over 100 of the reboots. Michael decided eventually, that there was no way to make you two miserable if you were together. You were too happy together to realize if the world was burning down around you. So, he tried different combinations to keep the two of you apart. He... He really tried everything. But through it all, you guys always found each other. And in the end you would always fall in love. Every single time. 800 different ways." 

Tahani had tears in her eyes, and her stomach felt like it was twisting into a huge tangled knot. "Why are you telling me this?" She whispered. "Why now?"

Janet turned towards her, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders. "Because, Tahani. Don't you get it? You two were always going to fall in love, no matter the circumstance. So why do you think this time is different? Do you think that Eleanor isn't in the other room, waiting on her soulmate to burst in and make her feel like her world isn't really ending?" She asked.

"We only have until morning," Tahani mumbled.

"Yes. And that's all you have. You have to make the most out of it. You can't spend eternity regretting that you never kissed her. Because you want to, and she wants you to." 

"Why do I have to be the one to make the move?" She grumbled.

"Because Eleanor is scared. And she's more broken than she would ever admit. And she loves you more than she could ever explain and she is terrified that you don't love her back. But you do, so what are you waiting for?"

Tahani smiled softly at Janet in the hue of the moonlight that shone peacefully through her bedroom window. "I don't think we will ever see each other again, so I want to thank you for being my best friend through all of the madness. I truly don't know what I would have done if we weren't mates. So thank you, Janet." 

"I can see every possible scenario of your afterlife, and I can assure you that you would have always found your way." Janet's eyes pooled with tears. "But I am so grateful that we could do it together. Frankly, as an all knowing being, it's scary to experience things that you can't explain. Feeling emotions for the first time was confusing and isolating, and you were always there to make sense of everything I felt. So thank you, Tahani. I love you." 

Tahani swiped at the tears from under Janet's eyes with her thumb, then pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. "I love you, too, darling." 

"Now go get your girl. She's waiting for you." 

Tahani took one last look at Janet before kissing her on the cheek and padding quickly out of the room. 

Soft knuckles found their way to an off-white door, knocking three times before stepping inside of the minimalistic room. 

Eleanor whipped around from where she sat on her bed, her eyes adjusting to the new figure in the space. "Tahani," She breathed. "What are you-" 

Tahani moved swiftly to climb into bed next to Eleanor, wrapping her long arms around the shorter girls narrow shoulders. "Listen, darling. Tonight is it, and I've been waiting too long to tell you this, I know. But I love you. Not like in a best mates way. Like, if we were on Earth I would spend every day of my life sweeping you off your feet. What it is, Eleanor, is that I really fell for you. Romantically." She watched her soulmate's expression with darting eyes, worried now that Janet may have been wrong. Or maybe kidnapped and replaced again by Bad Janet as a way for the bad place to get a early start on their eternal torture. "You understand, don't you, Eleanor? Please say something." 

Eleanor had tears pooling in her eyes, and that worried Tahani even more, every aching second made her question Janet's credibility.

She crashed her lips into Tahani's desperately, her hand moving to the back of the girl's neck to make sure there was no space left between them. Tahani squeaked in surprise before reciprocating with equal desperation. 

Eleanor broke their lips apart first, still absently rubbing at the hairs on the back of Tahani's neck. "I love you, too." She breathed.

"I kind of got the message." She joked, rubbing her fingers over her now swollen lips. 

"Thanks for making me wait forever, hot stuff." Eleanor teased, before her face fell back into one of heartbreak. "So to make up for that, I need you to do something for me." 

Tahani nodded, "Anything, love." 

"I want you to hold me until morning. I know it's not sex or what you might have expected, but-"

"Of course, darling. Like I said, anything." 

Eleanor turned to lay on her side, guiding Tahani's arm to wrap in a secure hold beneath her breasts. The taller girl squeaked in surprise as she felt the location of her arm.

"I-" She stuttered.

"You really think I wasn't gonna let you cop a feel after that gay speech you just gave me, gorgeous?" Eleanor joked. 

"Oh, very well, then." Tahani replied with a drunken smile. "Can I ask you a question?" 

"Go for it, babe. This is quite literally your only chance." 

Tahani took a deep breath, "Why are you still being good?" She asked. Eleanor turned in her arms with a confused look. "What I mean is, from what I've heard, you were never caring for anyone when you were on Earth. Not even your lovers, so, I guess what I'm asking is why you are choosing to be good to me. You know, when we both know that changing our intentions never changed our fate." 

Blonde eyebrows rose in contemplation, and Tahani could see the gears turning in that pretty head of hers. 

"Well," She started. "Being good means making the right decisions even when they don't benefit you, right?" Tahani nodded, following along closely. "So, if we have actually changed, that means that doesn't just go away because we're all royally forked and none of this changed anything. If I just went back to the way everything used to be, then how would we know if anything we did was actually right?" 

Tahani sighed in understanding. 

"But you know what the biggest reason is?" Eleanor asked.

"What?" 

"Because you," a kiss "are the love of my life. And even if everything i'd ever worked for had just been some big elaborate escape plan, I would still bend over backwards to make you happy. That's the thing that sticks out to me about being in this place, Tahani. You changed me. And I love you. I think that's something I was never capable of until I met you." 

Tahani sniffled. 

"You have always been capable, my love. It's always been in there." She said, tapping on Eleanor's temple. "I understand you better than anyone. We both put on this facade as a wall so that no one could ever get to us and hurt us again. I wish things had been different, but I don't really think that is the worst way to live. We never really had a say in it, did we?" 

Eleanor shook her head, softly holding eye contact with her soulmate. "No, we didn't." 

Tahani smiled, "But what I do know is that in one of those hundreds of reboots, you scaled the wall that every stupid boy, or girl, ever tried to break down. You made your way into my orbit. And no matter how many times Michael erased our memories, you and I were still there, spinning around in space, falling in love." 

Their lips came together again, the kiss becoming deeper as Eleanor climbed over Tahani. Their fingers intertwining tighter on each side of Tahani's head while they spun and spun and fell in love all over again. 

Tahani broke the kiss after what only felt like a minute, but could very well have been all of eternity. Eleanor sat straddled over tan exposed hips, beginning to fiddle with their still clasped fingers. Tahani freed one of her hands to sweep a section of hair behind the woman's ear.

"I have never felt quite as seen as when you see me." 

Eleanor smiled softly at her, "Well you're really easy to look at."

Tahani giggled, pushing her shoulder, causing Eleanor to catch herself clumsily. 

"Do you know what I want?" Tahani asked. Eleanor shook her head while her fingernails absently scratched at the skin on the darker girl's stomach. "I want to remember what it feels like to have your bare skin pressed against mine."

Eleanor gasped quietly, trying desperately to keep her cool. "I- Um. I think I can do that for you. Ya know, selflessly, of course."

"Oh, of course." Tahani spoke dramatically, playing along with her counterpart's antics. 

She watched in awe as Eleanor began peeling her clothes off slowly above her, throwing the articles of fabric into random parts of the room. Before she knew it, they were both completely nude. She sat further up in bed, her back against the headboard with Eleanor sat between her legs. There wasn't an atom of space between them, and she resisted the urge to vocally react to the feeling. 

They sat, embraced in silence as the clock ticked away, the moon still shining on into the window. 

"Ya know, hot stuff, you really have me turned on right now." Eleanor stated nonchalantly.

Tahani chuckled, "I can't say that I don't feel the same way." 

The love they made was slow, eager, full of hunger and longing, lasting until they had came undone too many times to count and had succumb to the silk sheets of Eleanor's bed. 

They lay skin to skin, still, the heat radiating off of their bodies. Both silent, the room filled with words they wanted to say, yet hadn't. To live these hours in blissful ignorance, or walk into the darkness knowing that they understood each other better than maybe they ever had before. 

"Tahani-"

"Shhh, darling. Not tonight." 

Maybe they knew each other better already, and maybe everything they had ever learned was still in there somewhere, having become instinctual as they had fallen in love for the 803rd time. Whether or not that was the case, Tahani was never one to live in the moment. And she was not going to make that mistake again and waste her last moments with the woman she loved by talking about tomorrow. So she inhaled deeply, taking in Eleanor's scent in hopes that she would never forget what she smelled like, pressed deeper into her skin in hopes that she would never forget what she felt like. Held onto this moment, because to say she was lucky to know Eleanor at all was an understatement. She didn't know what she did to earn the right to be loved so deeply by her, and to love her so deeply. Maybe that was one thing that she didn't need to earn, maybe that was fate. 

Maybe if she held on tight enough, time would stop, and she would never leave this moment. Maybe if she convinced herself enough, a single night would be enough to hold her over until the end of eternity.


End file.
